The “Dhurandhar” review…
Oh no! When the paid reviews went gaga over the latest Ranveer Singh release, it was time after I think few months or years for me and (my) wife to spend our Monday evening at a movie theatre to witness what the ‘noise’ is all about this one movie…And readers, mind you, the 4 hour movie did leave me with few comments which I am going to put forth…yes 3/12 hours movie with 30 minute to get out of the theatre which was house-full on a Monday evening 7pm show…
To begin with it is not a Ranveer Singh movie…at least this part– as the makers of the movie have announced the second part coming up in March 2026. This part entirely belonged to one and only Akashaye Khanna and if I could put a number 2 to any character in the whole movie, I have to rate performance of Rakesh Bedi above that of Ranveer’s…AKshaye Khanna, I have been a huge fan of this ‘actor’ (others are heroes for me, he is an ‘actor’ ) Akshaye Khanna right from his Taal days to his best performance I feel was Dil Chahta hai and even Humraaz with Bobby Deol…
The movie Dhurandar did not make me a bit emotional at all. I think the makers understood that it lacks the emotional quotient and hence just to insert the feelings, for 5 minutes they directly played the audio clippings during the 26/11 attacks, which we all have heard and seen million times..The element of surprise in the movie was missing; what I mean is in such patriotic movies, we should get to see and hear what we haven’t…I am not interested in knowing how the Pakistan underworld works…
Ranveer is merely shown as a Hitman; a beefed up Baloch guy who just gets beaten up or beats up… but even an actor of his calibre couldn’t lift the movie…We all know what Ranveer is capable of in terms of roles he has played, but in this one only brawn and no acting can surely be a pass. Rakesh Bedi has got equal screen time if I compare it to Ranveer Singh or Akshaye Khanna but man, he has done a fabulous role. Rampal wasn’t impressive nor was the heroine or any other remaining character…Script lacked many things…Gone are the days when the audience can be fooled, not any more…But just see how marketing works, it surely got many of us to the theatres…I mean even ‘Animal’ was a gore movie, but a lot of us liked it…
The makers did try to touch our nationalist chord, but they haven’t had the grip of the movie from scene one. Like if I have come out of theatres getting emotional after watching a Chava or Rang De Basanti, or a Gadar (1) or Border or even Article 370 , this Dhurander does not leave that mark with me…Very average or mediocre script with only action…I want to question filmmakers, –why so much cruelty is shown in the name of action ? Women and young children don’t want to see how hearts are cut out or heads are chopped off …
Not even a timepass movie, I hope the director gets it right in the second part…
Vikrant Meena Hemant Joshi.
